Kai Luttmann left rich legacy

Kai Luttmann, age six weeks, passed away early Sunday morning.

He succumbed to an insidious disease called spinal muscular atrophy.

Ryan and Nikki Luttmann, who squeezed a lifetime of parental love into two months, are doing as well as can be expected.

Kai's services will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at Christ Our Redeemer Church.

In the grand scheme of things, Kai wasn't here all that long. As Ryan and I discussed a few weeks back, good can come out of life and out of death. Kai's death reminded us all how precious life can be.

Kai will be remembered as a child who helped Sandpoint Rotary buy equipment and spruce up several rooms at Bonner General Hospital.

He will be remembered as a child who brought a whole room of adults to tears when his Dad told 40-plus Rotarians about Kai's incurable medical condition at the same time explaining why he was proud to be Kai's father and all the good Kai has brought to him.

Kai will also be remembered in a memorial scholarship sponsored by the Sandpoint Rotary Club.

Kai also touched a child whom some might think has enough challenges of his own.

Cody Walker, 5, and his sister Alicia, 8, read about Kai's plight a few weeks back in this column.

"I was crying as I read them the story," said Anna, Cody and Alicia's mom.

Cody was born with Prune Belly Syndrome, which means he has no abdominal muscles. He's on a catheter, one kidney has failed and sooner or later he will need a kidney transplant. He wears an abdominal brace.

Cody is the only child in Idaho with this malady. He underwent major surgery when he was one. One out of every 40,000 births results with a child with Prune Belly Syndrome.

Cody's father, Duffy, and Anna have done everything they can to make Cody's life as normal as possible — including real life issues of living and dying.

"What can we do for baby Kai?" he asked his mom.

Thoughts of bringing the family goodies quickly went away when the family also noticed a story in the Bee about personalized bricks being laid in front of the Panida.

Cody wanted to put empty his savings account and forgo a Honda XR70 to give money to Kai. Mom convinced Cody the brick would be a nice tribute.

The Walkers contacted Karen Bowers at the Panida and planned a rendezvous. Two weeks ago the Walker kids gave Bowers enough money for a brick that will be inscribed "Kai Luttmann."

Alicia shares Kai's birthday.

Anna said she was sure this lesson hit home a while ago.

"I want to help Kai because at least I am going to live," Cody told his mom.

Anna found out about Kai's passing at church on Sunday and tears filled her eyes.

"What's wrong, Mom?" Cody asked. "Baby Kai passed away," she answered.

"It's OK, Mom," Cody said. "I bet he is with God now."

Some lessons truly do last a lifetime.

The Jazzy Nutcracker went off without a hitch on Sunday. Laurie Buck showed an audience full of proud parents and grandparents the amazing talent we know all of our children have.

I want to be Danae Rokstad's agent when I grow up. She and the rest of the intermediate and advanced jazz and intermediate ballet group were nothing short of awesome. Lea Black, Laticia Lies, Juliana Meredith, Cami Murray, Samantha Peters, Jennifer Prandato, Carly Rickard and Tiffany Windju did a wonderful job. Brielle Buck, Sydney Morris, Hillary Nussbaum and Samantha Peters all gave the young dancers something an idea of what can happen with a lot of practice.

I received a nice letter from Alice Hadley Allbee on Monday. The former Sandpoint resident raved about the Bonner County Memories book we published this year.

She enjoyed most of the photos but especially the band picture on Page 4.

"The photo includes a lot of my friends, a couple of cousins and my brother, Leo, who owned the Sandpoint Marina for 30 years, and enjoyed that picture too, as well as many of the other areas in town that are so familiar as we lived on Fifth Avenue where the car wash is now ware our bedroom area!!" she wrote.

We'll run the complete letter at a later date.

Speaking of the Bonner County Memories book, having my name attached to it earned me an invitation to a book signing and reading get together at Vanderford's on Saturday.

What an amazing amount of literary talent we have in this county. Tom and Marcia Vanderford should be commended for having such a great store and for sponsoring this event.

Marianne Love, Sandy Compton, Jack Nisbet, Jim Payne, Bob Hamilton, John Rember, Bonnie Thompson, Dennis Nichols, Doris Fuller and Terry Bain all read from their latest or favorite works.

For the record, Bob Hamilton sold the most copies while Terry Bain did a great job reading from his You Are a Dog! Life Through the Eyes of Man's Best Friend. He is also reading from the book on NPR.

Love will soon have a new book out as will Sandy Compton. Compton's Jacob's Passage is still one of my favorite books.

Doris Fuller and her daughter Natalie have hit the big time with their collaboration, Promise You Won't Freak Out. The book is Amazon.com's favorite parenting book of 2004 and watch for more news about mother and daughter, they are talking with CBS about a series.

Nichols' books are also very well done and he is putting the finishing touches on a book about the hiking trails around Pend Oreille Lake.

If you are interested in buying a Bonner County Memories book, hurry. This Saturday, the many folks who donated photos or worked on the book will be at Yoke's to swap tales and sign books.

The books are still available at the museum, the Daily Bee, Vanderford's, Corner Book Store, Timberstand Gallery and Yoke's. With under 200 remaining, this may be the last weekend the keepsake edition is available.

Watch for the advertisements later this week about the time for the Yoke's get together. And if you contributed to the book, y'all come.

David Keyes is publisher of the Daily Bee. His column runs Tuesdays.